A day at the Fort Worth Stockyards!

The annual Fort Worth Rodeo is in town for a few weeks so we thought that it would be fun to head down to the Fort Worth Stockyards to check it out. Avery is still a little too young to sit through a rodeo so we skipped that but decided to walk through the stockyards and visit with all of the various animals! Unfortunately, the sheep, chickens and pigs had already finished with their shows and were no longer there. However, there were plenty of cow barns to check out!! She was overwhelmed by being SO close to the large cows at first but towards the end of our visit, we had to hold her back from running up to them. She did get to pet and feed a few hay. She also got to see some cows hooked up to a milking machine. It didn't quite click for her as to what was happening with the milking machine but that's probably for the best! LOL We also strolled through the horse barns but there weren't a lot of horses either. That was kind of a bummer but we did get to see a few and even got to see a horse getting a bath... to Avery, that is VERY cool! We also got to see a few minutes of a cutting competition so Avery got her horse fix there. She kept pointing to the cowboys and horses and was saying "horse... ride... horse"! Cutting is such a cool event. These horses are trained to separate one cow from the herd. It's amazing to watch them in action...

The highlight of our trip was the petting zoo. She was so brave and LOVED it! She ran around without me and pet the goats, bunnies, llamas, ducks, donkeys, and little cows. However, her favorite were the chickens. She used to be afraid of chickens this summer but that's no longer the case! She kept herding them! We're not sure what that was all about but it was hilarious. She'd tap them on their behinds and say "go"! She was also copying the chickens by kicking the mulch back with her feet, just like they were doing. At first, I didn't quite realize why she was kicking mulch backwards and then Andrew pointed out that she was being a chicken! Too funny!

All in all, it was a great morning. Avery was begging for "night night" the whole way home and took a great nap!!

Avery, Dolly & her Aunt "Sa Sa" (Sarah) on the way to Fort Worth!

Say "cheeeeeese"!

Andrew & Avery scoping out the petting zoo before entering...
So many animals to pet, so little time!!

Because I crouch, she thinks that she has to crouch... she doesn't realize that she's a shortie and doesn't HAVE to crouch! LOL "Go!"